Mike Argento: A man who actually wants to go to the dentist

James Rountrey of York is trying to raise money for a root canal via an Internet site. Mike Argento - York Daily Record/Sunday News

It's become a kind of cliche for having to do something you dread.

Whether it's attending a meeting at work, or having dinner with people you don't want to have dinner with, or having to call Comcast, the phrase that always seems to apply is, "I'd rather have a root canal than that."

It's not quite accurate. Anyone who's had a root canal knows that, for a small amount of discomfort, the tooth always feels better afterwards. You can't say the same about, well, calling Comcast. (That usually makes your teeth hurt from all of the grinding.)

James Rountrey, a 33-year-old York resident, wants a root canal. He wants to sit in the dentist's chair and become comfortably numb as the doctor drills away. He wants to feel that numb-mouth thing afterwards, where you drool on yourself for several hours until you regain feeling in your jaw.

Only he can't.

It started last month, or perhaps sometimes before that, when Rountrey was on disability for a mental-health problem that rendered him unable to work. He received treatment and worked at it and was finally able to get back to work, part-time. When it got to the point where he had made more than $770 a month, again working part-time, his disability payments were cut off. It wasn't a lot of money, maybe $750 a month, but it meant that his income was sliced in half. He is now making about $900 working part-time for a company that distributes recycled paper products.

"It's pretty harsh," is how he describes things.

To compound things, his wife had been laid off from her job and has spent about a year looking for work.

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It always grates him when he hears people griping about those on disability. They make it sound like it's some kind of wonderful gravy train where all needs are met. The reality, he said, is that he was living in poverty, and now that he is able to work, and wants to work, he is living in even more dire poverty.

The other part of it is health insurance coverage. He doesn't have dental coverage, and if he were to apply for it, it would take some time to kick in.

As it is, he is having some dental issues. He had a tooth pulled not long ago, he said. The dentist said he needed a root canal on another tooth and a couple of others needed fillings. He goes to Family First in York, and the office requires a down payment of at least $100 before the work begins.

The tooth that was pulled is on the edge of his smile, he said. When he smiles, he said, you can see the gap. The tooth that needs a root canal is bothering him; his wife says it causes him extreme pain.

He was looking at some expensive dental work, much of which is not covered by Medicaid. The implant — replacing his missing tooth with a prosthetic one — is about $5,000 when it's all said and done, he said. The root canal and cap could be $2,500.

He just doesn't have the money, or the hopes of earning that kind of money any time soon.

He was desperate and was trying to come up with a solution when he thought of his aunt in Richmond, Va. She had a lot of old photographs that her great-grandfather had taken while he was working as a motorman on the streetcars in Richmond and wanted to publish them in book, preserving them for history's sake because they were pretty interesting photos, capturing candid views of the early 20th century in that Virginia city. She successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign and raised the money. The book, titled "From A Richmond Streetcar: Life Through the Lens of Harris Stilson," was published in January 2013.

He looked into Kickstarter and saw some of the sillier projects listed on the site.

"I figured if someone could raise $50,000 to make potato salad, I could raise money to get my teeth fixed," he said. "Maybe someone with some real need could get some help."

So last week, he and his wife launched a campaign on the website GoFundMe.com. The site has an entire section dedicated to people trying to raise money for health care. One campaign has raised almost $39,000 for a woman fighting a rare neurological disorder. Another has raised almost $15,000 for a New Jersey man who had a stroke while in Mexico, staying with his daughter, who was there being treated for a rare medical disorder. The man had exhausted his savings after Hurricane Sandy.

Rountrey is looking to raise $10,000, thinking that will be enough to take care of his dental problems. As of this week, he has raised $320, mostly from friends and four anonymous donors.

If the campaign raises more money than he needs, he said, he will donate that money to a fund to pay for others to get dental care.

He said it was kind of embarrassing to have to ask people to pay for his dental work. But he was desperate.

"People sent that guy money to make potato salad," he said. "All I want is to get my teeth fixed. I hope it works. We'll see."

UPDATE: After this column appeared on-line, a local periodontist contacted Rountrey and offered to treat him for free. The periodontist said he didn't want any publicity, that he "just wanted to help the guy out."

Mike Argento's column appears Mondays and Fridays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints. Reach him at mike@ydr.com or 771-2046. Read more Argento columns at www.ydr.com/mike. Or follow him on Twitter at @FnMikeArgento.